I was wondering if anyone could explain why ‘God Save the Queen’ was played during this evening’s funeral service for the late President Gerald Ford. My only guess was that perhaps some British Royalty was present but that seems like a slightly odd reason given the number of dignitaries from various other countries that were presumably also present.
So what gives? Is this a standard of some sort?
In the U.S. it’s known as My Country 'Tis Of Thee.
Here are the lyrics to My Country 'Tis of Thee. Usually we sing only the first and last verse at most.
The first time I heart the British sing “God Save the King,” I thought it was very strange that they had put strange lyrics to our song.
I didn’t watch the whole thing. Did they show foreign dignitaries?
Am I a Very Evil Person for thinking how funny it would have been (based on Ford’s really undeserved reputation of being a klutz) if the pallbears had stumbled while carrying his casket up the steps?
thanks, that makes much more sense now. IMHO its a pretty wacky decision to play that song without the American lyrics and simply assume everyone knows that they’re referring to the rewritten version.
Wikipedia has a pretty solid article on the song as well as a mention of “My Country, 'Tis of Thee”…
Charles T. Brooks, in 1833, translated a German Lutheran hymn also starting with the words “God bless our native land” This hymn inspired Rev. Samuel F. Smith to write the words to the American patriotic song “My Country, 'Tis of Thee” (also known as “America”), sung to the same tune, in 1832.
Slight hijack. I was tickled by the fact that the music to the British Labour Party’s anthem ‘The Red Flag’ is used for a popular Christmas tune here in the US: Oh Tannenbaum.
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here. 
On a related note the Star Spangled Banner was uses the music from an old British drinking song.
Someone will no doubt be along to correct me pretty soon but it is my understanding that that song (Internationalen) was used by quite a few labour movements and was the Russian National Anthem in times gone by.
Most Americans would probably have the reverse question about, and reaction to, the song being played at a British funeral.
The first words for me are the hymn.
I maintain that we had the songs first. Some snarky British doctor just went back in time to England so they could retro-actively rewrite them O_O
:dubious: It’s an American funeral for an American head of state. “My Country 'Tis of The” is an American standard, played at practically every patriotic occasion. There’s almost no way they couldn’t have played it. If international audiences might be confused, well, I don’t see why that should particularly concern the funeral directors. What I mean is, I don’t see why the possibility should even come up in their minds.
-FrL-
Indeed, when in Rome, sing as the Romans do.
You mean “Maryland, My Maryland”? We clearly filched it from a Christmas song before any Brit labor movement did.
(According to the wiki article, the earliest known “Tannenbaum” lyrics were from 1550. The tune is an old folk tune.)
OK, I’ll try.
“The Internationale” is a different tune than the others we’ve been discussing. It was the Russian national anthem 1918-44:
http://www.hymn.ru/index-en.html
The first link contains a folk rendition, the second link several schmaltzy orchestral / choral renderings as befitting a national anthem. The French lyrics were originally intended to be sung to La Marseillaise. IMO, that was a better choice.
Quite correct Yabob.
That’s what relying on a distinctly unreliable memory does for you.
Matching this, on the theme of “two nations divided by a common language” ;), the rather well-known official Presidential march, “Hail to the Chief,” does actually have lyrics relating to the President, beginning “Hail to the chief we have chosen for our nation…” But the original song related to the ceremonial carrying in of the Christmas tree:
These words were written by Sir Walter Scott as a part of his “The Lady of the Lake” series. The U.S. lyrics date from about 1812, and were slowly adopted in the period 1815-1835 as the tune to honor the President, being made “official” (though only by the Dept. of Defense) only in 1954.
Who would do that?! 
Maybe I just don’t witness many patriotic occasions, but the last time I heard “My Country 'Tis of Thee” was back in grammar school, 20 years ago. I’m not being facetious here, but is it really that popular?